Bonus Tax

wobblytax

I'm on a pretty low income, I earn 28k a year, I get an occasional bonus. My monthly take home pay is usually around £2200

this month I received a £500 bonus, and did £258 in overtime, yet I have only seen an extra £224 in my pay, so my take home was £2424 this month with no other deductions

How is this even possible?

My tax never seems to go down but whenever I hit a bonus I always feel like I'm paying extra and yet my HMRC account never tells me I've overpaid either. So that bonus has essentially disappeared.

So please explain to me like I'm 5 how this works. I'm sure it's some GOV logic "just trust us" we'll honestly never make a mistake nonsense, but it definitely feels like I'm being turned over and it's so disheartening.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6662036/bonus-tax

You have got your figures wrong somewhere.

If you earn £28k/year then that is £2333.33 per month.

With tax, NI and pension contributions it's inconceivable that your take home pay would be £2,200.

Isthisforreal99

£2200 take home on a salary of £28k seems high. Do you do regular overtime. What does your payslip show as taxable pay to date, what is your tax code?

wobblytax

Okay so I've just downloaded my last years worth of payslips to work this out properly, my regular take home can fluctuate as they don't pay £28,099/12Months - tax, something to do with how many days and weeks are in the month. I've never quite understood it fully which is what I'm trying to do now, so thanks for calling me out I was frustrated and not thinking right, I appreciate your logical speedy responses.

So my tax code is C1257L I'm in Wales. my salary is listed at £28,099. Occasionally we hit bonus of £250 and then even more rarely we get a double bonus like we did this month £500. So my taxable earnings to date this year show as £29,499 £1500 of which is bonuses and my tax paid to date is £4660. We have various taxable benefits available to us, namely my pension which sits at 5% contributions which is matched by my employer, then healthcare which they have listed at a value of £1100, and then life assurance valued at £95.99

Even taking all this into account and including my benefits package putting my total reward statement up to £32,220. How have I paid £4660 in tax for the year and only seen 33% of an additional £758 on this months pay. I still can't make sense of it.

chrisbur

If you want an answer you need to give more details. From your payslip with the bonus and the one with the pay that you say was £224 less…..

Taxable gross for the month

Tax paid for the month

Tax code and basis

Month number or date paid

Taxable pay to date

Tax paid to date

There is likely to be two sets of gross figures on your payslips , the figures reqiuird are the ones that say "Taxable Gross" and "Taxable Gross to date"